The Trout Lily (A Nature Poem)

The Trout Lily

As I was reaching

The waterfall crossing the woods

The little golden flower

With orange eyelash-like

Filaments -

It looked at me like

A crawling grandchild

At my feet

I stopped

“Do you know me?”

“No, this is the first time

Seeing you bloom, lovely

Color”

“But my siblings and I

Have been here all along”

“Oh! How long, if I may?”

“Perhaps hundred or three

Hundred years. These shrubs

And Trees are just babies”

I got startled 

A great awakening

Of

Conscious life

In the midst of

Decaying leaves, moss,

And rich compost on the floor

No,

I did not learn humility

Not in the college

Not in the port city

Sprawled university campus

Not in the Institute at the capital

But 

My parents had it in good measure

Even the rich landlord had it

I could see it in their gestures

And living examples

Now

After years of learning

And knowledge gathering

After collecting degrees, diplomas,

And certificates

I suddenly feel humbled

In the futility of mounds of intellectual

Stuff –

Stuff, it is after all

There is lot more unknown to man

And

Even the gigantic Cloud, IBMs,

Vast repositories of libraries 

Spread across the continents

Yet we do not know

Or comprehend

All the songs of Annamayya

Or Tyagayya

Neither the dark matter

Nor some intricacies of 

Human body’s defenses

Or the cloning process

This

Little Trout Lily

Taught me a lesson

Today

On this spring day

There is much in my own

Backyard across the gaze

Through the window

There – I clearly see

The Life spread across space

And vast stretches of Time

“sarvam Vishnu mayi”

Copyright 2023 by the author